Short version: CA or OC (Freedom Road Financial; the article is unclear on whether this is the OC or a CA) calls a man, threatens to "send someone over" to his office and home, says he is "in trouble", states the FDCPA doesn't apply to them because they're "investigators", very strongly suggests (but doesn't actually to say) that they're law enforcement, and generally makes a major nuisance of themselves. As it turns out, the man's name was placed on a loan as a "reference" (NOT a co-signer). After getting plenty of recorded calls, the man is filing criminal charges relating to harassment as well as going after them for "big" civil damages. Presumably, he's suing for FDCPA violations as well as compensatory & punitive damages. The full article: Man Out For Repoman's Blood (Listen To Their Calls) - The Consumerist Some thoughts for the board: 1 - Would you say that the FDCPA applies even when the victim and the CA have no relationship other than the CA wrongly calling the victim? My thought can best be summed up using the following highly-technical and legal terminology: Hell yes. 2 - Would you say that the FDCPA covers an agency repossessing a vehicle? My thought is that if the agency also does debt collection on the side and is not solely a repo agency, then yes. The FDCPA only requires that the CA "regularly" engage in debt collection; it doesn't say "unless they also happen to repo items". 3 - What would / should Average Joe Consumer do when faced with threats and collection attempts from a company with whom he has had no relationship, regarding a debt that he had no part in? I'd love to send a C&D to the company and then have them violate it. Or better yet, show up unannounced at my place of employment and humiliate me in front of my coworkers. I'd be rich! I'd also contact the police and play my recorded calls for them, seeking criminal harassment charges against the employee(s) involved. 4 - Any other thoughts? It sounds like this company really, really, really screwed up.
I've successfully litigated against Independant Towing and United Auto Recovery which are both in Tennessee. The former's agent hit my client over the head with a billy-club. I invoke every common law tort theory, the FDCPA, the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act, and Art. 9 of the U.C.C. Both times, it came down to actual damages and what the insurance coverage was. Throw punitives out the window (not saying it's fair).
Some of these things really get interesting. Often gets into a bit of conjecture as well. As to repo agents trying to repo a vehicle, that can get very interesting indeed. It seems that the repo people are pretty safe from FDCPA so long as they don't create a public disturbance of any kind. Frankly, I tend to think that hitting somebody over the head in the process of snatching a vehicle just might create a bit of a disturbance. (LOL) I was in the repo business years ago in Denver Had a lot of interesting experiences as a result. We had a guy we could never find. I caught him driving down So. Santa Fe ave one morning, apparently on his way to work. I pulled up beside him and started pointing to his rear tire. He pulled off and I pulled off just in front of him and went back to his car. He asked what was wrong and I told him it looked like his wheel was about to come off, maybe its a broken axle. He couldn't believe him so I told him to get down on his hands and knees and I'd drive ahead a few feet so he could see it for himself. He did that and I got into his car and forgot to ever stop until I got the car back to the dealer's lot, the wife right behind me driving our tow truck. We went to another house at another time. I got invited into the house to see about getting a payment and while the guy's wife went somewhere to get the money the guy wanted me to just come by the house every month to get the payment. I told him I would be happy to do so but it was going to cost him a new repo fee of $100 each time I came. And the fight was on. He jumped me and I sprayed him down with pepper spray and out the front door and across the front lawn we went kicking, punching and yelling all the way. The wife and our German Shepard both jumped out of the truck and neither one liked what was happening too well. The dog proceeded to do something about it and he wasn't playing games. While the guy didn't mind fighting with me he wasn't too keen about getting into any arguments with the dog since the dog was trying to go for his throat and would have done it if the wife hadn't stopped him. Needless to say that created a bit of a disturbance too. (LOL) I think one of the worst repos I ever did was going to another repo lot to get a car that company had pulled out of the woods somewhere. It was in the summer time and pretty hot. The police found the car out in the woods and the driver had shot himself a few days before. He had been dead for about 4 or 5 days before they found him sitting in the car with the windows all rolled up in the hot summer sun. After that the dealer didn't want the car back. I wonder why??? (LOL).
Had a lot of fun doing the repos for a while until they changed the law in Colorado. Once they did that the only way to repo a car in Colorado was to do it through a court order. Prior to that time Colorado was a self-help state as Oklahoma still is. It wasn't nearly as bad as working the 10 P.M. to 6 A.M. shift in a Phillips 66 gas station on the corner of Colorado Blvd. and whatever street it is that led directly into Stapleton Int. Airport in 1966. At that time the area was a virtual war zone. Businesses were getting fire bombed as a nightly routine. This was the era of the Los Angeles riots which literally destroyed parts of Compton and nearby communities. Denver didn't get hit nearly that bad but there were some very tense moments. I went to work every night armed to the teeth. I really only had two really close calls while on duty. They were scary but not nearly as scary as another close call I had while living in Los Angeles back in 1959. Walked into the middle of an armed robbery at about 4 A.M. The thug herded about 5 of us into the station rest room. I was the last one in line as we went to the rest room and the guy loudly proclaimed that if anyone got funny and tried anything he would shoot the last man in line. Thank God they all went to the can peacefully . (LOL) Funny thing about it is that the station attendant had most of the station's cash in his shirt pocket, I had a good chunk of my boss's cash in my car and the robber got less than $50 for his evening's work. I've had quite a few very close calls in my lifetime. I've even learned why airplanes have propellers the hard way two different times. They serve two different purposes. One is the obvious and the other is to keep the pilot cool. If anyone doubts that just think of how fast the pilot starts sweating when the durn thing stops. (LOL)
